Tension in Manipur as radical group Arambai Tenggol ‘summons’ all 40 Valley-based MLAs to Kangla Fort

Subject: Geography

Section: Human geography

Context:

Kuki groups claim that Arambai Tenggol has been involved in the killing of Kuki-zos since May last year.

More on news:

A team of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) reached Manipur and camped in the state to keep watch on the situation.
Kuki groups, however, expressed concern over reports about a meeting of the MHA team with Arambai Tenggol in Imphal.
They claim that the BJP government in the state is in cahoots with Arambai Tenggol and another similar radical group MeeteiLeepun.
Radical Meitei group Aarambai Tenggol “summoned” all 40 MLAs of Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley for a meeting on Wednesday morning at the historic Kangla Fort in Imphal.

About Arambai Tenggol:

Arambai Tenggol is a Meitei organization of around 50,000 people engaged in guarding villages in the valley areas of the state.
It is a Meitei activist organization in the Indian state of Manipur.
It is often described as a radical organization, or as a radicalized armed militia.
Starting as a cultural outfit, it soon turned into a radical organization.

About Meitei:

The Meitei people, Meetei people, or Manipuri people are an ethnic group native to Manipur. They form the largest and dominant ethnic group of Manipur in Northeast India.
Meitei officially known as Manipuri is a Tibeto-Burman language of northeast India.
The Meiteis primarily settled in the valley areas in modern-day Manipur, though a sizable population has settled in the other Indian states of Assam, Tripura, Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Mizoram.
There is also a notable presence of Meitei people in the neighboring countries of Myanmar and Bangladesh.
The Meitei ethnic group represents about 53% of Manipur’s population.
It is the official language and the lingua franca of Manipur.
It is one of the 22 official languages of the Indian Republic, included in the 8th Schedule to the Indian Constitution.

About Kuki tribe:

The Kuki people are an ethnic group in the Northeastern Indian states of Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, as well as the neighboring countries of Bangladesh and Myanmar.
The Kuki constitute one of several hill tribes within India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. In Northeast India, they are present in all states except Arunachal Pradesh.

The Zou people or Zomi:

They are an indigenous community living along the frontier of India and Burma.
They are a subgroup of the Zo people (Mizo-Kuki-Chin).
In India, they live with and are similar in language and habits to the Paite and the Simte peoples.
In India, the Zou are officially recognized as one of the thirty-three indigenous peoples within the state of Manipur, and are one of the Scheduled tribes.
According to the 2001 Census, the Zou/Jou population in Manipur is around 20,000, less than 3% of the population.
The community is concentrated in Churachandpur and Chandel districts of Manipur.